In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/479,055, entitled “An Intelligent Label Device and Method,” which is incorporated herein, a new intelligent label is described. An intelligent label is associated with a good, and includes one or more electro-optic devices that are used to report the condition of that good at selected points in the movement or usage of that good. These electro-optic devices provide immediate visual information regarding the good without need to interrogate or communicate with the electronics or processor on the intelligent label. In this way, anyone in the shipping or use chain for the good, including the end user consumer, can quickly understand whether the product is meeting shipping and quality standards. If a product fails to meet shipping or quality standards, the particular point where the product failed can be quickly and easily identified, and information can be used to assure the consumer remains safe, while providing essential information for improving the shipping process. It will be understood that the intelligent label may take many forms, such as a tag attached to the good, integrated into the packaging for the good, integrated into the good itself, or may even be an information area on a prepaid card for example. The intelligent label may also include, for example, print information regarding the good, usage or shipping rules, or address and coded information.
In a particular construction, the intelligent label includes a computer processor for managing the overall electronic and communication processes on the intelligent label. For example, the processor controls any RFID communication, as well as storage of information data. The processor also has a clock, which may be used to accurately identify when the good changed hands in the shipping chain, or when the good failed to meet a quality standard. In this regard, the intelligent label may also have one or more sensors that can detect a chemical or gaseous composition, optical, electrical or an environmental condition such as temperature, humidity, altitude, or vibration. If the processor determines that the sensor has a condition that exceeds the safe handling characteristics, then the processor may store information regarding the out-of-specification handling, and may take additional actions as necessary. For example, if the out-of-specification handling is minimal, the processor may cause an electro-optic device such as an electrochromic indicator or display to show a “caution” as to using the product. In another example, the processor may determine that the sensor has greatly exceeded the outer specification criteria, and cause an electro-optic indicator to show that the product is spoiled or otherwise unusable. Note that the term ‘display’ as used herein is to be understood to encompass indicators and other electro-optic devices capable of displaying visually perceptible states, data, information, patterns, images, shapes, symbols etc. which are collectively referred to herein as “messages”.
Advantageously, the intelligent label provides a robust, trustworthy, easily usable system for tracking goods from a point of origin to delivery to the consumer. Importantly, the intelligent label provides important visual alerts, updates and information throughout the shipping process without the need for expensive communication, RFID, or interrogation equipment. Further, the intelligent label facilitates simple and reliable communication of shipping information from a consumer back to a manufacturer or seller, for example, for confirming warranty or replacement information. In this way, a shipping and delivery system having a high degree of trust, and resistance to fraud, is enabled.
A particularly difficult problem occurs when an intended message has been sent to the display for the intelligent label, and then something occurs, either external or internal to the good or label, that makes the message imperceptible to the reader, which can be a human or a machine. In this way, the intelligent label, and any network to which it communicates, has a record that a particular message was displayed to a reader at a particular time. However, due to some problem, the intended message could not be communicated to the reader. Accordingly, there is a need to detect what was actually displayed to a reader, and to do so in a reliable, compact, and cost efficient manner. It will be appreciated that the need for such message detection would be useful in many display applications other than the use of intelligent labels.
The condition of goods can change over time, as a result of natural degradation and processes, due to environmental effects or mishandling, or for a wide variety of other reasons. Changes in the condition of billions of goods significantly impacts their use, outcomes, and value; collectively their utility. Today the condition of many of these goods is either unknown or if known, it is not immediately actionable by humans or systems where or when it matters most. A big part of the problem is 1) the cost of evaluating the condition of the good, 2) the time it takes to extract the good from its normal distribution channel to test its quality, and 3) that the good is often times remote from the entity that most needs information about its quality. Further, in some cases the destructive nature of existing methods of determining the condition of the goods makes testing to determine the good's condition economically unfeasible.